“There are more hours of classical programming on the air now than five years ago, but total listening to classical public radio stations has remained flat. News programming is much better than classical music at raising money to keep a station going. A listener-hour of NPR news may generate twice as much listener income and much more business underwriting income as classical or jazz.”
Tag: 02.16.05
On Campus – Where Are The Risk-Takers?
“In order to flourish, university life needs individual risk takers – people who are ahead of their time and prepared to search for the truth, wherever it may lead and whomever it may offend. Intellectual and scientific breakthroughs inevitably challenge the prevailing order, which is why those who make them frequently face repression and the attention of the censor. Sadly, contemporary academia takes academic freedom for granted, and treats it as no big deal. Some seem to view it as a redundant privilege, not worth making a fuss about”
The Rise Of Clear Channel
It’s accepted as gospel these days that Clear Channel Communications is the 800-lb. gorilla of the media world, controlling blocks of radio stations, billboards, and concert venues in nearly every large metro area in the country. But it wasn’t too long ago that Clear Channel was nothing more than a struggling radio group, competing with countless other station owners in a relatively competitive marketplace. Then, back in 1996, Congress passed a Telecommunications Act which legislators swore would increase competition and serve consumers better. As everyone now knows, the opposite happened, and Clear Channel became the face of America’s new corporate media.
24 Lessons For An America At War
The third season of the terrorism drama, 24, currently running on the Fox network, has stirred up a lot of controversy with its depiction of an American Muslim family secretly made up of terrorist killers. Fox has acknowledged the sensitive nature of the plot, running a public service announcement featuring the show’s lead actor reminding viewers that most American Muslims are, well, still Americans, and don’t want to kill anyone. But the show has become much more than simply an envelope-pushing shockfest: in fact, for all its bluster, it’s a fairly decent depiction of all the unresolvable contradictions, moral quandaries, and societal soul-searching faced by a country at war.
A Machine That Measures Thrills
“What thrills us depends on our personal hopes, fears, loves and desires. But now a British designer, working with a computer scientist, is creating a machine that can measure the experience of thrill. The hope is to create an industry-standard measure that can be used to gauge thrilling experiences, and, ultimately, dynamically modify such experiences in real time. For computer gamers, the prospect is tantalizing.”
Arts Council Chief: Politicians Don’t Get The Arts
The head of the British Arts Council says politicians are out of step with how popular the arts have become. He “warned against excessive political interference in the arts and ‘the gradual amputation’ of the arm’s-length policy that protects artists from direct political tampering. Arguing that politicians are out of step with huge popular support for the arts in Britain, he said: ‘Since 2001 the percentage of adults who believe that arts and cultural projects should receive public funding has increased from an impressive 74% to an even more impressive 79%’.”
US House Passes Stiffer Fines For Broadcasters
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that radically hikes fines for broadcasters charged with indecency. “The bill, passed by 389 votes to 38 on Wednesday, boosts the maximum penalty for firms and individual entertainers to $500,000. But the bill, supported by the White House, cannot become law until the Senate approves similar legislation. Legislators said stiffer fines were needed to force broadcasters to clean up their programmes and protect children from inappropriate material.”
Copyright Bullies
Are corporations bullying the rest of us with the copyright lawsuits? “David Bollier argues that the court’s willingness to let corporations get away with such bullying is increasingly eroding our “cultural commons” — the collection of images, stories, sounds and other creative expressions that, due to their significance and prevalence, no longer belong to any single person or company.”
So This Is News? Study: Local TV Ignored November’s Elections
Local American TV all but ignored last November’s elections, says a new study. In the month before November’s election, local viewers saw 17 minutes of candidate ads for each minute of local TV news coverage. That disparity was one of many striking findings in an intensive study, released yesterday, that found local political races were given short shrift by newscasts.”
Dallas Museum’s New Riches Among A Cultural Boom
The Dallas Museum gets $400 million worth of art and cash, making it a major center of modern art. Moreover, “the gifts arrive amid a Dallas cultural building boom: a new $275 million performing arts center includes an opera house designed by Norman Foster, a theater designed by Rem Koolhaas and an arts high school. They will become part of the Dallas Arts District, which already embraces the Morton H. Myerson Symphony Center.”